From the Archives ...

Fishing on the Wild Side

Mike Fry doesn’t only live on the Wild Side of Tasmania, but also goes fishing in probably the wildest boat ever to troll for trout—certainly in Tasmania. When your mate says ‘What are you doing tomorrow, want to come up the Gordon for the night?’ it would be pretty hard to say anything else except “you bet” and start checking out your tackle box and packing your overnight bag. But if your mate was Troy Grining and he wanted to give his new 52ft, high speed cruiser a run across Macquarie Harbour, test the new onboard dory with a chance of landing a nice Gordon River Brown you would have to feel privileged. I didn’t say anything about getting on my hands and knees and kissing his feet…just having a lend of ya’ but I did feel very appreciative.

Best Baits - Mussels

Part one in a series, by Phil Ellerton, on the best baits to use in Tasmanian waters.

As anglers, we don't often utilise out natural bait resources, than can often be readily found and gathered along many of our coastal ledges and reefs.

In Tasmanian waters the Blue Mussel is one of my favourite baits. Mussels are one of those baits that are easily accessible and most importantly constantly available.

I have been given the impression that anglers simply don't use Mussels because they are messy and often don't stay on the hook. The point is that the humble mussel is great bait and will catch a wide variety of different species.

Techniques

The first step is to gather the bait therefore low tide is essential. A suggestion is to use sturdy gloves when gathering mussels of the rocks. This is because of the sharp edges, which believe me can inflict some nasty wounds. After carefully scooping out the mussel from its shell the mussel should be kept as full and natural as possible. Note that it often helps to leave a little bit of mussel on it's shell as it will stay on the hook a little better.

The Mussel shells also make for suitable berley with the crushed shells working as a fish attractor with the silver shiny shell glistening on its descent to the bottom. With the smaller Mussels gathered that are too small for bait, theses are also good for berley when crushed and thrown in the water.

Target Species

Almost any fish species will readily accept a well presented mussel working for both pelagic and bottom feeding fish. Species which I have personally has success with are: bream, whiting, flathead, cod, trevally, perch, mullet, trumpeter, mackerel and even species as rare as sea run trout.

Normally when fishing for bream I use mussels as my first choice of bait. I have found a lot of the time bream will be extremely cautious being reluctant to take any bait presented although nevertheless will accept the humble mussel.

I have found that mussels are a good bait for the sand whiting, that enter a lot of our Tasmanian bays and estuaries.

Rigging and Gear

Simple spinning gear is all that is required when targeting fish with mussels. I prefer to use as light a line as possible, fishing from 1 kg to 3 kg. I will normally use a heavier piece of leader attached to the hook, preferring 4kg line. A rod of length between 6-9ft is all that is needed. Thread line (spinning) reels are the easiest to use especially when fishing such light line with little casting weight. Often I don't use any sinker, simply floating the mussel down naturally, therefore it can be taken either on the surface, mid water or on the bottom. If I use a sinker at all I use a running ball sinker, remember to use as little weight as possible. In regards to hooks I go no smaller than a size 8 and no larger than a size 4. I use the red chemically sharpened Gamakatsu, octopus hooks.

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From the Archives ... (last chance)

Sea run trout tactics – Craig Vertigan

During the trout off-season I tend to spend a bit of time chasing bream, to continue getting a fishing fix, and spend time tying flies and dreaming about the trout season to come. It’s a time to spend doing tackle maintenance, stocking up on lures and dreaming up new challenges and goals for the trout season ahead. When the new season comes around I usually spend the first few months targeting sea runners. Sea run trout are simply brown trout that spend much of there lives out to sea and come in to the estuaries for spawning and to feed on whitebait and the other small endemic fishes that spawn in late winter through spring. Mixed in with the silvery sea runners you can also expect to catch resident fish that have the typical dark colours of a normal brown trout as well as atlantic salmon in some of our estuaries that are located near salmon farm pens. Living in Hobart it is quick and easy to do a trip on the Huon or Derwent and is a more comfortable proposition compared to a trip up to the highlands with snow and freezing winds to contend with.